What do you think about police, crime, safety? Researchers still hoping to see your answers

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Chances are that you haven’t answered this year’s Seattle Public Safety Survey yet, since researchers say they’ve received replies from only about a third of one percent of the people who live in the Southwest Precinct jurisdiction (West Seattle and South Park). We first told you about it a month ago; it’s only open for another two weeks. Seattle University researchers oversee it, and, they explain, “A report on the survey results will be provided to the Seattle Police Department to help them better understand your neighborhood’s safety and security concerns, and community-police dialogues will be held in May-August 2026 to provide opportunities for police-community engagement about the results.” The survey is available until November 30, in Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, English, Korean, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya, and Vietnamese, all linked here.

way too long November 13, 2025 (9:49 am)

I’m wondering if part of the low response is the length. As an ex-researcher-a 20 minute questionnaire with so many questions would have been way too long.

CC November 13, 2025 (11:01 am)

Reply

I agree. I think there’s a sweet spot for survey length to get thoughtful responses and usable data, but not skew the results of who can or will want to fill out a long survey like this.

Keenan November 13, 2025 (9:56 am)

I feel very safe in West Seattle. Yes, there have been incidents. I live one block off California so I’ve seen…things. For example, a homeless man dropping pants and taking a full #2 in the middle of the same alley I need to drive out of every day to leave my townhome. Also that incident the other week where a guy was waving a gun around in front of the 7/11. I saw with my own eyes, but it appears he was quickly apprehended by police. I also have seen a fentanyl zombie here and there hunched over stumbling around. However, those things are all par for the course in every west coast city in the 21st century.

I’ve never felt personally threatened by anyone in the dozen years I’ve lived here, nor have I seen any “homeless encampments” left for more than a day except for a brief period around the pandemic. The only crime I’ve been a victim of is one time an Amazon package got taken from my porch. One out of hundreds, over 12 years. It was also recovered down the street.

Regarding the police, the only interaction I had with them was one time when I had a mental health crisis several years back, and they acted professionally and with restraint the whole time. I’m overall very happy with public safety in West Seattle.